Update Standard Branding Elements

The Theme uses CSS and SASS to customize frontend experiences. CSS variables gives you the flexibility to use variables to define things like colors, fonts, borders, and more in one place to use it across several CSS rules. 

The files we’ll be handling can be found under static > scss.

The Answers Variables File

We store many commonly used variables in the answers variables file (found at static/scss/answers-variables.scss), where we can define the value of multiple CSS properties without having to update the CSS of all sections that should use that variable. 

For example, if you want to update the primary text color from black to red, you can update the value of one variable --yxt-color-text-primary instead of having to individually target each text class (e.g., navigation text, description text, result bar text). 

If you are curious about which elements are controlled by which variable, you can always inspect an element within live preview.

Standard Branding Elements

Default Configuration

// This file is for custom CSS variables, you can
// (1) override the existing Answers SDK variables (prefixed yxt)
// (2) override existing or define new theme variables (prefixed hh)

$container-width: 1000px;

:root {
  // control colors throughout the theme and SDK
  --yxt-color-brand-primary: #5387d7;
  --yxt-color-brand-hover: var(--yxt-color-text-secondary);
  --yxt-color-brand-white: #fff;
  --yxt-color-text-primary: #212121;
  --yxt-color-text-secondary: #757575;
  --yxt-color-link-primary: var(--yxt-color-brand-primary);
  --yxt-color-borders: #d8d8d8;
  --yxt-color-error: #940000;
  --yxt-color-background-highlight: white;

  // theme specific variables
  --hh-answers-background-color: white;
  --hh-answers-container-width: #{$container-width};
  --hh-answers-container-width-filters: 950px;
  --hh-color-gray-1: #dcdcdc;
  --hh-color-gray-2: #fafafa;
  --hh-color-gray-3: #757575;
  --hh-product-tag-text-color: var(--yxt-color-brand-white);
  --hh-product-tag-background-color: var(--hh-color-gray-3);
  --hh-universal-grid-margin: 8px;
  --hh-universal-grid-four-columns-width: calc(calc(100% - var(--hh-universal-grid-margin) * 8)/4);
  --hh-universal-grid-three-columns-width: calc(calc(100% - var(--hh-universal-grid-margin) * 6) / 3);
  --hh-universal-grid-two-columns-width: calc(calc(100% - var(--hh-universal-grid-margin) * 4) / 2);
  --hh-universal-section-title-text-color: var(--yxt-color-text-primary);
  --hh-universal-section-title-background: var(--yxt-color-background-highlight);
  --hh-universal-section-title-icon: var(--yxt-color-brand-primary);
  --hh-view-results-button-hover-color: #4a7ac1;

  // common border variables
  --yxt-border-default: 1px solid var(--yxt-color-borders);
  --yxt-border-radius: 5px;

  // spacing variable, used in padding/margins across the site
  --yxt-base-spacing: 20px;

  // component specific variable overrides
  --yxt-autocomplete-text-font-size: 16px;
  --yxt-results-title-bar-text-color: var(--yxt-color-text-primary);
  --yxt-results-title-bar-background: var(--yxt-color-background-highlight);
  --yxt-searchbar-button-background-color-base: white;
  --yxt-searchbar-button-background-color-hover: #e9e9e9;
  --yxt-searchbar-button-background-color-active: white;
  --yxt-searchbar-button-text-color-hover: var(--yxt-color-brand-primary);
  --yxt-filter-options-options-max-height: none;
  --yxt-filters-and-sorts-font-size: var(--yxt-font-size-md);
  --yxt-filter-options-option-label-line-height: 20px;
  --yxt-alternative-verticals-emphasized-font-weight: var(--yxt-font-weight-semibold);
  --yxt-text-snippet-highlight-color: #eef3fb;
  --yxt-text-snippet-font-color: var(--yxt-color-text-primary);
  --yxt-direct-answer-view-details-font-weight: var(--yxt-font-weight-normal);
  --yxt-search-loading-opacity: 0.5;
  --yxt-product-prominentimage-height: 300px;

  // interactive map variables
  --yxt-maps-search-this-area-background-color: white;
  --yxt-maps-search-this-area-text-color: var(--yxt-color-text-primary);
  --yxt-maps-mobile-detail-card-height: 225px;
  --yxt-maps-desktop-results-container-width: 410px;
  --yxt-maps-mobile-results-header-height: 185px;
  --yxt-maps-mobile-results-footer-height: 97px;
  --yxt-maps-desktop-height: 820px;
  --yxt-maps-mobile-height: 620px;
}

// breakpoint variables for use in media queries within the theme styling
$breakpoint-mobile-max: 767px;
$breakpoint-mobile-min: 768px;

$breakpoint-mobile-sm-max: 575px;
$breakpoint-mobile-sm-min: 576px;

$breakpoint-collapsed-filters: $container-width + 279px;
$breakpoint-expanded-filters: $container-width + 280px;

Common Variables to Update

Below are common variables brands typically update to match their business needs and website. In these examples, we will be using the color green for each property so you can note which properties are being updated.

Page Background Color

--hh-answers-background-color: green;

By default, the background color of the Search experience will be white. However, altering the background to match a customer's existing background color may help with brand consistency.

Brand Colors

--yxt-color-brand-primary: #0f70f0;
--yxt-color-text-primary: #212121;

These variables give you the most bang-for-your-buck. They control the color of many different elements across the Search experience.

--yxt-color-brand-primary will control the color of several elements on the page — from title links, to CTAs, to the nav menu items and view all links.

--yxt-color-text-primary will update the text color of the search bar text, the card text, the nav bar text, and the vertical title text. In the example below, we've set it to #881111, but most often you'll change this to a black or dark gray color.

Title Bar Colors

--hh-universal-section-title-text-color: var(--yxt-color-text-primary);
--hh-universal-section-title-background: green;

The --hh-universal-section-title variables help us control the colors for the title bar on Universal pages. As you can see below, we can change the background color to green and the text color to white to achieve a more prominent title bar.

There will be some additional tweaks necessary to ensure the icon and View All text is updated, but you'll learn more about how to do that in the Updating Custom Elements unit.

Best Practices

Variable Naming Convention

Variables prefixed with yxt are variables used in the Search UI SDK library (and can also be referenced in the Theme), while those prefixed with hh are variables defined only in the Theme. If you want to add new variables in your variables files, we recommend you prefix them with something like hh to ensure there are no conflicts with other CSS variables your customer may be setting.

Brand-Specific Colors

You’ll want to inspect a customer’s website to ensure you’re adhering to their styles as much as possible. Customers might even have a style guide that will give you the specific colors and other styles to apply. For example, we can pull the Yext blue color by inspecting the CTA on the homepage, and grabbing the value #0f70f0 to use as our --yxt-color-brand-primary.

Contrast Checker

For the --yxt-color-brand-primary and --yxt-color-text-primary, we recommend pulling colors that have enough contrast against your chosen background color for accessibility purposes. You can use a tool like  WebAim’s Contrast Checker  to verify if this passes sufficient contrast. Typically, we aim for a contrast above 7:1 to pass all the tests.